I live outside of TC but did highschool in GR way to long ago. Where are these rooms? I have heard the cash play is soft so I am thinking of making some trips down this winter. Can anyone tell me the rake structure, bad beat, and all the other jazz that makes the rooms unprofitable to grinders?

The rooms I'm aware of are Westgate, TJs and Woody's although I'm pretty sure there are others. Westgate is the place to go for tourneys although TJs runs some decent ones on the weekend. The rake is 20% though but the fields are so soft that they are usually worth it (many of the Westgate tourneys pay out >1k for first). For cash games I'm pretty sure all the rooms are 10% up to $6 and none of these 3 have a bad beat I believe.

just moved here, is woodys and TJ's both bowling alleys? I am from Texas and am use to just driving to play in an Indian casino in Oklahoma....

Thanks for the help, I saw a 20 dollar buy in tourney someone mentioned???
I usually only play cash, but for 20 bucks I would like to play a live tourney.... I could see myself just tilting off the 20 bucks after I lose the first hand.

Woodys is in the restaurant area connected to Spectrum Lanes. Westgate is also next to a bowling alley. TJs is connected to just a restaurant. TJs and Westgate both have daily tournies (bigger fields at Westgate). Woodys does not run tounaments. Schedules are here:

Not sure what you mean by capped cash games. If you are referring to the buy ins, Woody's 1/2 is $50 min, $200 max. TJ's is $30 min, $300 max. I'm not sure about Westgate. The rake is 10% up to $6 at Woody's and TJs (same at Westgate I think but I'm not sure since I haven't played there in a while). TJ's runs 1/3 round by round Thursday nights and Woody's runs the same thing Wednesday nights. Woody's also runs a 2/5 round by round game Monday night but it can be hard to get a seat in that game since the same people play it every week.

If by "capped" you mean the amount of money someone can put into the pot, I think there is some weird rule at TJ's that there can only be 4 bets on each street (so bet, raise, raise raise, after that no more raises) but other than that, it's a standard NLHE game. If you're worried about that, you should call and ask the floor about it since I'm not 100% sure.

Finally did my first trip to a live poker room today, so just thought I'd share my report.

Played 1/2NL at Woody's Press Box. Arrived at about 5 on a Wednesday, and there were only about 6 playing. Sat down next to an older, talkative gentleman that was very friendly who had bought in for $1000 and was definitely the donor at the table, limping often and calling down several streets with any strong 2nd pair. About 30 minutes in with 7 seated, I realized that aside from myself and one other player, everyone knew each other and were regs. I'd say 3 of the 5 regs were skilled TAGs, the other 2 didn't do much out of line, but had obvious leaks (1 tilted and put out a steam raise the next hand after every big loss, the other probably cbet too often). After a while, 2 of the regs left, and were replaced by an older nit and an obvious young gun reg. The young guy seemed like he might be an online reg, because he rarely limped or played OOP, and he always opened for $8, though he eventually seemed to catch on and started opening for $10. The older donator to my left quit and 2 obvious regs (they also knew the others at the table by name) sat down to my left, and started aggressively 3betting me. Obviously the game had gotten a lot tougher by this point, so I did one more orbit and left, no need to stick around when I have such a bad spot at the table (which was now full).

I was able to walk away with a 22BB profit after 2.5 hours from the period before the weak players left and were replaced by the proficient regs. Overall, I'd say the regs weren't pros or anything, but out of all the players who came and went, there were a LOT of regs, that would at least be considered decent.

Is there a better time to play with less regs? Might try TJs next month and see if it is more fishy there.

I would recommend going to TJ's at 8:30-9:00pm when people from the tournament get knocked out they try to get their money back. There is usually one cash table running for this. I would go on Friday when they have their $50 freezeout that fills up and cash games quickly follow.

Finally did my first trip to a live poker room today, so just thought I'd share my report.

Played 1/2NL at Woody's Press Box. Arrived at about 5 on a Wednesday, and there were only about 6 playing. Sat down next to an older, talkative gentleman that was very friendly who had bought in for $1000 and was definitely the donor at the table, limping often and calling down several streets with any strong 2nd pair. About 30 minutes in with 7 seated, I realized that aside from myself and one other player, everyone knew each other and were regs. I'd say 3 of the 5 regs were skilled TAGs, the other 2 didn't do much out of line, but had obvious leaks (1 tilted and put out a steam raise the next hand after every big loss, the other probably cbet too often). After a while, 2 of the regs left, and were replaced by an older nit and an obvious young gun reg. The young guy seemed like he might be an online reg, because he rarely limped or played OOP, and he always opened for $8, though he eventually seemed to catch on and started opening for $10. The older donator to my left quit and 2 obvious regs (they also knew the others at the table by name) sat down to my left, and started aggressively 3betting me. Obviously the game had gotten a lot tougher by this point, so I did one more orbit and left, no need to stick around when I have such a bad spot at the table (which was now full).

I was able to walk away with a 22BB profit after 2.5 hours from the period before the weak players left and were replaced by the proficient regs. Overall, I'd say the regs weren't pros or anything, but out of all the players who came and went, there were a LOT of regs, that would at least be considered decent.

Is there a better time to play with less regs? Might try TJs next month and see if it is more fishy there.

I was actually in this game, I had the green t-shirt on. Yeah that table was pretty dead. Wednesdays are usually a good day to go but for whatever reason (maybe it was the 80 degree weather) there weren't many fish yesterday. If they didn't run a round by round game Wednesday nights, I would have just left. The round by round last night was as much better game but of course it's very swingy. Afternoon games there are kinda hit or miss but if you show up later around 8 the games will almost always be good.

I usually leave on fridays around 230-3pm and get there a bit before 4pm... and saturdays, I usually leave around 1230-1pm... since the end of the month tourny starts @ 1pm and the cash games do not open back up till about 230pm.....